


The stars shined and the shadows moved

by roadsoftrial



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Mother-Son Relationship, Pining Keith (Voltron), lots of feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 09:22:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16616270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roadsoftrial/pseuds/roadsoftrial
Summary: ‘Something the matter?’Something you wish you’d said before leaving?‘No. It’s fine,’ he says, flopping down the wall of the cave and onto the ground.She’s not looking forward to this any more than he is, but the company helps.They have a lot of catching up to do, anyway.(In which Keith and Krolia have a lot of time on their hands, and Keith has a certain someone on his mind.)





	The stars shined and the shadows moved

**Author's Note:**

> GUESS WHO'S NECK DEEP INTO VOLTRON?
> 
> (IT ME)

‘How long will this take?’ Keith asks once they’ve found a good place to settle, standing by the mouth of the hollow cave Krolia has already started settling in, and doing a very poor job of hiding the sense of imminent doom in his voice.

‘A while, Keith. Phoebs. Possibly more,’ Krolia says.

‘Fuck,’ he mutters under his breath, then rubs an eye with the back of his hand, combs his hair back and steps into the cave.

‘Something the matter?’

_Something you wish you’d said before leaving?_

‘No. It’s fine,’ he says, flopping down the wall of the cave and onto the ground.

She’s not looking forward to this any more than he is, but the company helps.

They have a lot of catching up to do, anyway.

—

He’s reserved. That’s the first thing she notices. Reserved; guarded, even. He couldn’t be more different from his father that way.

But she also notices the stubbornness, the unshakeable drive to see things to the end, to finish what he set out to do at all costs, and if she wanted more proof that he’s his father’s son, she needs look no further.

But his silence is heavy, deafening at times, and that’s on her. His father had told her the same thing when they’d first met. He had questions and never hesitated to ask them. Keith… obviously has questions, many of them, and so does she, but neither of them has ever really learned how to pique without prying, how to handle discomfort and silence, how to turn it into something light and tolerable. Her solution had always been to ride it out. Keith’s is to walk away.

When he does talk, it’s always in small bites, careful and shielded, as if he worries it will be used against him sooner or later.

He’s very much her son after all.

—

Progress comes in the form of one named Shiro.

It’s almost palpable, the shift in Keith’s demeanor whenever the name comes up (and it comes up surprisingly often). He doesn’t seem to notice he’s doing it, either, or he would nip it in the bud in no time. Krolia doesn’t want to say anything, doesn’t want to shatter this small glimpse into what her son is like, when the walls come down.

She hopes she’ll get to meet this Shiro, one day. It seems inevitable, the same way she’s always known she’d meet Keith one day, the same way the universe knows to align the stars, every once in a while.

She looks forward to it.

—

‘Do you miss him?’ she asks one morning where Keith has been quieter than usual.

‘Who?’ he tries to play dumb, but she can see the way he stopped himself right before adding ‘ _Shiro?’._

‘You know who,’ she says with a wicked, knowing grin she could blame on maternal instinct, but she only really needs basic observation skills to reach her conclusions.

(Keith still doesn’t know how brightly his eyes shine when he talks about Shiro, doesn’t realise how much lighter he becomes, like the weight of the universe on his shoulders is entirely lifted during those small blessed moments.)

‘I, um… yeah, I guess I do. I mean, I miss… I miss all of them.’

‘Of course,’ she says, and the smile doesn’t waver, so Keith has no choice but to look at the tip of his feet bare seeking warmth in the shy sunlight. ‘Wanna talk about it?’

‘There’s… nothing to talk about,’ he tries to dismiss. ‘I’ll, um, I’ll go get us some breakfast,’ he adds, a touch too quickly, a touch too panicked. He throws on his boots, grabs his knife and runs off into the woods before she can add anything more.

Krolia smiles, still, shaking her head slowly.

They’ll get to it. They have nothing but time.

—

‘He… he made me who I am today,’ he whispers, late one night around the campfire. ‘I was a little shit back then, but that never stopped him.’

‘You look up to him a lot, don’t you?’ Krolia says, and there’s the flicker of a smile on her lips that Keith definitely sees but refuses to acknowledge.

‘Yeah, he’s… he was there when no one else was.’

_When you weren’t,_ Krolia hears between the lines, but she’d rather not go down that route, not now, not when Keith has finally been able to talk about Shiro without immediately excusing himself with some half-assed excuse.

‘Tell me more,’ she says, because a selfish part of her wants to see if this runs as deeply as she suspects, if Keith will reach the same conclusion she already has.

Because she enjoys the way years of loneliness, of pain and anger, seem to dissipate whenever Shiro’s name is mentioned, the way the bags under his eyes don’t seem so heavy, suddenly, the way he glows, warm and beautiful and so, so contagious.

He reminds her of his father, when he does, with the same quiet enthusiasm, with the same gaze that overflows with all the things she could never let herself bask in.

 

—

‘You love him,’ she says as they walk back to the shelter, arms full of firewood, an affirmation rather than a question, because the benefit of the doubt is steering dangerously towards complacency, of late.  

‘Everyone does,’ he tries to dismiss with a shrug, and he slows his pace down in a futile effort to hide just how rattled he is.  

‘There’s nothing wrong with admitting it, you know,’ she tries, soft and welcoming.

‘It’s… it’s not like that.’

Except that it is.

It is, or he wouldn’t try to dodge the subject every time it comes up a little too forwardly for his liking; or the topic wouldn’t come up so frequently to begin with.

It is, or he wouldn’t spend so long picking which small bites of his life he wants to share with her, when asked. Because she knows there are more stories about Shiro than the ones he chooses to part with, because even he knows he’ll inevitably have to pronounce Shiro’s name, and that she’ll be onto him with the knowing gaze and the unsaid conclusions, because the words he uses when he doesn’t choose them carefully are so sincere, so genuine and innocent that it can’t be anything other than love, blatant, unabashed love. They both know it, but he shies from this confrontation at every turn, because for the first time in his life, confrontation doesn’t come in the shape of aggression, and he’s never been taught how to handle that.   

‘It’s… it’s okay for it to be like that, you know’ she says, equally clumsy, when she turns around to see that he’s stopped in his track, ready to flee.

‘What does it matter to you?’ he says, a little too fast, a little coarser than either of them had expected.

‘I overstepped. I’m sorry,’ she says as she tries to walk towards him, but he dodges her and rushes forward before her hand can reach his shoulder.

She makes sure to stay out of his way the next morning, makes sure to head towards the river before Keith can wake up, to bathe and think things over without his presence looming over her shoulder (or hers over his). She makes sure to keep a safe distance as she ventures into the wooded areas nearby to gather firewood and some sort of dinner for the two of them. Keith is sharpening his knife the first time she comes back, and he makes a conscious effort not to break his concentration. He’s gone, along with the wolf, when she returns for the second time. She isn’t worried, not for his safety, at least, though parts of her wish someone could’ve taught him that he’s allowed to show some vulnerability, every once in a while. Other parts can’t shake the idea that she should’ve been there to teach him those things, that she has a large part to play in her son’s hang-ups and inability to yield.

Still, she waits. She lets him to come to her, on his own terms, because he’s half-human and half-Galra, and the Galra might be cold and stubborn, but humans know kindness, and to lay down their arms when fighting doesn’t seem so worth it anymore.

He’ll come around when he’s ready, so she waits.

He comes back long after darkness has fallen. The wolf rushes to plop at her side, but Keith stands by the cave’s entrance, staring at the fire so he doesn’t have to look at her head on.

‘You must be cold,’ she says quietly, and waits some more, for him to move, for him to talk, if he wants to.

‘Yeah,’ he whispers, and takes a tentative step forward. He drops his bag and knife against the wall, then seems to hesitate long enough that Krolia can’t help letting out a soft chuckle, which pulls him from his thoughts before long.

‘Come here,’ she laughs, moving to the side to make more space at her side.

He moves cautiously, making his way towards her and carefully sitting down, closer to her than he’s ever been until now. She shifts her weight to be closer to him, slips a strong arm against his tired shoulders, and pulls him towards her. He doesn’t resist, leans into the touch instead, and there’s something almost eerie about how comfortable, how familiar it feels.

‘I’m sorry,’ he says after keeping quiet for a long time, his voice low and a touch heavier than usual, ‘for… overreacting.’

‘It’s ok,’ she chuckles,

 ‘And, um. You were… you were right. About Shiro.’

She says nothing, leans down, closes her eyes and presses her lips to the top of his head instead, just like she used to do before she had to leave him behind.

They have a lot of catching up to do.  

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!! Comments and kudos are, as always, wildly appreciated ♥  
> (come yell at me on [tumblr](http://roadsoftrial.tumblr.com/) if you'd like!)


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